The present invention generally concerns improved structure and resulting assembly of circuit boards and casing structures employed in electric utility meters, and more particularly, concerns an integrated meter casing assembly with unique means for positioning and protecting printed circuit boards within an electric utility meter casing combination. The subject invention concerns both apparatuses and corresponding processes for assembly in such areas, including a focus on both the combinatory process of pertinent mechanical and electrical metering components as well as the manufacturing design of selected composite assemblies.
There are a wide variety of utilized designs that offer means for housing and protecting the electronic component boards utilized in an electric utility meter. Specific designs focus on the orientation of the circuit boards within an electric utility meter. Other designs emphasize ways to effectively retain these circuit boards and other components within the overall meter assembly. The ease of assembling a respective design is also an imperative feature in today""s competitive manufacturing atmosphere. Any number of such design focuses may be employed depending on specific applications of such a meter, including the commercial environment in which a meter is applied.
It is typically ideal to construct a meter casing that is easily assembled as well as disassembled to ensure ready access to internal components of an electric meter, especially to printed circuit boards. Potential accessibility of a meter once it has an established location in the field is aided by several design characteristics.
It is desired to utilize a minimum number of parts needed to accomplish full functionality of an electric utility meter casing. It may also be ideal to exclude component parts in a meter casing assembly such as screws or clips, since such parts may be difficult to remove and could easily be misplaced. A simple and convenient removal process would ensure that casing components and electronic boards are not damaged and also that loose mechanical parts are not lost in the field.
Another inherent goal of an electric utility meter casing is to provide adequate protection of its internal components. Such protection is achieved through design and utilization of various meter casing components, and the stability of such casing components is essential to ensuring proper protection. A utility meter may endure significant mechanical loads from impact with foreign is objects, shock loads from transportation and installation, or additional stress from diverse environmental conditions. It is thus ideal to provide a fully stabilized meter casing that ensures safeguarded protection of a meter""s components.
Additional concerns include not only protecting the utility meter, but protecting those exposed to such meters. Functionality should provide both the meterman who potentially services a meter as well as the customer who potentially uses a meter with adequate protection from electrical shock. Designs should provide ease of component manufacturing and assembly. Finally, it is desired that all design goals are achieved in a safe, reliable and cost-effective manner.
There are known meter design which incorporate a predefined arrangement of internal meter components. Exemplary designs include two printed circuit boards that are positioned and secured within an electric utility meter with the use of cardholders, rods and snaps. Screws are also used in the assembly process, which may pose the risk of misplacing loose parts. The two printed circuit boards are positioned on top of one another in a circuit board cover. This entire assemblage is then housed by an additional outer cover. Thus, another drawback of the design is difficult accessibility of the lower circuit board. In order to reach this lower board, the outer cover and circuit board cover must each be removed, each of multiple cardholder snaps must be compressed together and released, and the top circuit board must also be removed. This makes for a troublesome and often time-consuming process that field technicians or metermen may be involved in.
Present meter designs are also known that include pancake-like casing components that house the electronic circuit boards of an electric utility meter. Each xe2x80x9cpancakexe2x80x9d houses a single electronic circuit board and stacks upon the pancake below it. In each pancake, there is one circuit board that is fastened in with screws. Additionally, each pancake is held in place by a rotating latch, which is operated by another screw. Thus, in order to access any of the lower circuit boards (or pancakes), each pancake would need to be unlatched and removed. This characteristic makes for a difficult disassembly process and also incorporates undesired connective parts.
Other utility meter applications use snaps to connect a meter""s circular inner modules together. Printed circuit boards are positioned inside the inner modules and are nearly the same diameter as the inner modules of some present commercial or industrial meters. The boards are typically positioned and held in the inner modules with a plurality of stepped posts and snaps along the perimeter of the board. In some instances, snap-in standoffs are used to maintain board spacing. Screws are often further used to secure a circuit board to an inner cover.
Another known meter casing design utilizes a lower inner cover and an Upper inner cover. Circuit boards are either fastened to the uppermost inner cover with screws or sandwiched between the upper and lower covers that are in turn fastened together with screws.
While various aspects and alternative inner component assemblies are known in the electric utility meter field, no one design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the above-referenced ideal electric utility meter characteristics and corresponding assembly procedure.
In view of the discussed drawbacks and shortcomings encountered in the prior art, an improved inner component assembly for an electric utility meter has been developed. Thus, broadly speaking, a general object of the invention is improved structure and corresponding assembly of electronic circuit boards within an electric utility meter casing.
It is another general object of certain embodiments of the present invention to provide an electric utility meter inner component assembly that is easily put together and consequently readily disassembled in the event that a meter casing need to be removed for access to or repair of specific electronic components of a meter.
It is yet another general object that various embodiments of the present invention may provide an electric meter inner component assembly that incorporates a minimum number of parts to accomplish fall functionality.
It is a further general object that selected embodiments of the present invention provide an electric utility meter assembly that does not involve loose parts that are easily lost or misplaced, such as screws, clips or stand-offs, thereby providing field technicians with easier access to a meter.
It is a principle object of the present invention to provide an inner component assembly for an electric utility meter that can effectively position and retain at least two printed circuit boards within its assembly.
It is another principal object of various embodiments of the present invention to provide an electric utility meter casing including inner covers that are used to house and protect various electronic components of an electric utility meter and an outer cover to enclose and stabilize the inner covers.
A further principal object of the present invention is to incorporate projections that extend from selected inner covers of an electric utility meter to position and secure printed circuit boards within an inner component assembly. Selected embodiments of the invention may incorporate specific projections, including locator pins, snaps or keys that selectively interconnect with openings and slots located on the circuit boards themselves.
Additional objects are incorporated into embodiments of the subject invention which combine with above-referenced objects to further position, retain and protect electronic circuit boards and other electronic components within an electric utility meter assembly.
In the context of improved component structures and corresponding methodology, it is another object of the disclosed assembly to provide integrated structures in which multiple meter parts are constructed in unified combinatory configurations. Manufacture of these structures, which combine several elements that are removable from one another, aids the assembly process of an electric utility meter. The assembly process is also facilitated by a sequentially defined procedure to position and secure printed circuit boards within an electric utility meter assembly.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention are set forth in, or will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from, the detailed description herein. Also, it should be further appreciated that modifications and variations to the specifically illustrated, referred and discussed features and steps hereof may be practiced in various embodiments and uses of this invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, by virtue of present reference thereto. Such variations may include, but are not limited to, substitution of equivalent means and features or steps for those illustrated, referenced or discussed, and the functional, operational or positional reversal of various parts, features, steps or the like.
Still further, it is to be understood that different embodiments, as well as different presently preferred embodiments, of this invention may include various combinations or configurations of presently disclosed features, steps or elements, or their equivalents (including combinations of features or steps or configurations thereof not expressly shown in the figures or stated in the detailed description). One exemplary such embodiment of the present invention relates to an electronic component board assembly for an electric utility meter. Such arrangement may comprise a first and second electronic component board, a means for connecting these circuit boards, an inner casing, and first and second pluralities of projections.
More preferably, both first and second electronic component boards include corresponding first and second pluralities of openings for accommodating interconnection with additional elements of a component board assembly. An inner casing effectively houses and protects both electronic component boards. Both first and second pluralities of projections preferably extend from this inner casing and interconnect with selected of the pluralities of openings. Ideally, one set of projections includes tapered locator pins to specifically assist with positioning the circuit boards, while the other set of projections includes keys and snaps to specifically aid in securing and capturing the boards within an electric utility meter assembly.
Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention concerns an electric utility meter that may variously comprise a baseplate, first and second inner covers, first, second and third printed wire boards, a connective element, a plurality of board connection projections, a plurality of board securement projections, a plurality of inner cover projections, and an outer cover.
Ideally, the first inner cover houses and protects electronic components of an electric utility meter and is connected to the baseplate. Each of the three printed wire boards includes respective pluralities of openings for accommodating interconnection with additional parts of an electric utility meter. A connective element preferably links the first and second printed wire boards together, and the second inner cover houses and protects these two wire boards. The board connection projections ideally include tapered pins for interconnecting with selected of the pluralities of openings. The board securement projections preferably include both snaps for providing snap-fit connections between printed wire boards and the second inner cover as well as keys for securing with selected of the printed wire board openings. The inner cover projections should help to interconnect the first and second covers while providing additional stability to the integrated meter structure. An outer cover ideally encloses both inner covers, and mutually interconnects with at least one of these inner covers.
Yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention involves an electric utility meter that includes various combinations of the foregoing casing features, further including various electronic components for use in an electric utility meter. Ideally such electronic components would include a combination of electronic circuit boards and current sensing elements.
Additional exemplary embodiments involve integrated manufactured structures including a lower inner cover assembly and a component board baseplate assembly that are constructed in an effort to ease the process of assembling electric utility meters.
An exemplary lower inner cover assembly includes a lower inner cover, a plurality of rivets and an additional structure. The lower inner cover includes a plurality of openings and ideally houses and protects certain electronic components of an electric utility meter. The rivets and hanger are ideally removably connected to the lower inner cover, so that they can be disconnected and subsequently utilized for their respective assembly purposes. Preferably the rivets are used in conjunction with the various lower inner cover openings to interconnect the lower inner cover with a baseplate.
An exemplary component board baseplate assembly includes a plurality of component board baseplates, a plurality of scorelines, and a plurality of openings. More preferably, the component board baseplates are for use in at least two electric utility meter assemblies and the plurality of scorelines defines distinct baseplates, providing a separation where baseplates can be broken apart from adjacent baseplates of the assembly. The openings are included on the baseplate for ideally interconnecting with additional elements of a meter assembly.
Additional embodiments of the subject invention, not necessarily expressed in this summarized section, may include and incorporate various mixtures and combinations of aspects of features referenced in the summarized objectives above, and/or other features as otherwise expressed in this application.
The present invention equally concerns various exemplary corresponding methodologies for manufacture and assemblage of all of the herein referenced meter embodiments.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will better appreciate the features and aspects of such embodiments, and others, upon review of the remainder of the specification.